Police officers patrol a public square near the Zhengzhou Railway Station in Henan province in January. XIANG MINGCHAO / CHINA DAILY

Homicide rate in China is as low as Switzerland, a country known as one of the safest nations, reported Southern Metropolis Daily on Thursday.

"The homicide rate in China in 2014 is 0.7 per 100,000 residents, which is better than those in developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom or France," said Meng Jianzhu, head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, during a national conference in Dalian, Liaoning province.

There has been a consistent decline in severe violent crimes in China, including rape, abduction, robbery, blasts, murder and arson, added Meng.

According to Public Security Bureau, the number of the registered cases between January to March has decreased by 15.6 percent on year-on-year basis.

Meng pointed out that it takes a lot of effort to keep the crime rate down in such a huge country with such a big population.

Meng added that many crimes nowadays are being committed over the Internet, such as commercial fraud, online pyramid schemes and invasion of privacy.

He urged the public security departments to set up "online police stations" and to step up efforts to prevent the spread of rumors, firearm-trafficking and drug-trafficking online.

Germany and Switzerland also have the lowest rate of homicide, 0.7, while it's 3.3 in India, 3.8 in the US, 9.0 in Russia and 26.6 in Brazil.